The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-02-19
AN IMPENDING EVIL.
Observations Upon the Annual Decrease
in tho Number of Marriages.

Observations Upon the Annual Decrease
in tho Number of Marriages.
a social reformer, who is us precise
in his statements of facts as he is expert
in the manipulation of figures, reports
rs the result of the investigation that
the number of marriages is decreasing
every year. We have just cause for
alarm if the report is true. Certainly
the choice of wife is subject full of
piquant attraction to romantic young
man who has sown his wild oats and is
saving his earnings and longs for the
comfort and slippered ease of home
of his own. The difficulties of court
ship, however, are perplexing, arduous
and real. In Knickerbocker times the
knot was securely tied after a bluff
proposal and the young married couple
were ready to start housekeeping with
barrel of potatoes, blunderbuss and
a family Bible. Then life was idyllic
and full of romance and song. But
Temporal mntaatur and they change for
the worse, in most respects. No longer
do the married pair flutter through
life on wings of romance The chief
bond Of interest that unite young lovers
in this mercenary age is Government
four per cent. The domestic tie is so elias
tic, divorces so easily procurable, the
feminine heart is so tickle withal, that
eligible young men feel morbidly shy
about exposing themselves to the mat
rimonial moose and would as soon
think ofslipping halter around the
neck.
The rule of woman in masculine at
tire and common sense shoes is not Il
pleasant spectacle to contemplate. But
if the girls of the Republic are not mar
ried off in some way, old maids of the
most virulent type, in various stages Of
physical decline, will be clamoring for
their rights with exceeding vigor and
persistency, and who knows whether
there will be enough green tea and
scandal left to 90 around? Already
the census table shows deplorable in
crease in their number. They are or
ganizing crusades against the most
cherished institutions of mankind.
If for no other reasons than the above,
human ingenuity should devise some
method of facilitating proposals and
tightening the love knot so there can
be no escape. Cynics scott at the mar
ital relations. Idle flirtations are de-
stroying the confidence of young peo-
pie of romantic temperament in one
another. Sir George Campbell has en-
deavored to prove that there is no such
thing as love; that it is psychological
delusion. So long as these ideas pre-
vail, no easy-going youth viii feel like
sacrificing the frolic and fun of Boz
hernia for the martyrdom of the do
nestle circle. But legislation can rec
tify the evil. The lawmakers should
take the matter in hand. They can
make courtship a civic duty which the
individual owes to society, and enforce
it by law. We're men who persist in
remaining single disfranchised and di-
vested of their property, and were
women who refused to marry shut up
in converts and denied access to the
fashion magazines, the aggressive type
of maiden lady who delights in agitat-
ing social and political reforms, would
gradually disappear and an ominous
evil would be averted, an evil that all
sensible people would seriously deplore.
Harold Van Santr0ord, an Life.